THE CRACK OF DOOM IS SIMPLE POVERTY

CRACK babies, they said, were born with a ``hole in the brain.'' Doomed in
the womb, they would grow up to be uneducable, uncontrollable, unloving, a
``biological underclass.''

The myth justified what a lot of people wanted to do anyhow: Police
pregnancy and punish bad mothers. And why fund visits by public health
nurses or highquality, highcost developmental preschools if the kids
were hopeless?

But they're not. ``Crack kids'' do as well on intelligence and language
tests as poor, innercity children who weren't exposed to cocaine, say
researchers at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia. The
study has followed 200 children since 1989.

``Just as well'' translates as ``well below average.'' The good news about
cocaineexposed children is bad news about poor children. Children raised
in poverty usually by a poorly educated, unmarried mother living in a
dangerous neighborhood are way behind in development by school age and
not likely to catch up.

Good or bad, it shouldn't be news.

In 1991, I wrote: ``Crack is not a health tonic for the fetus, but the
children of crack users may not be a whole lot worse off at birth than the
children of mothers who don't use crack, but have all these other risk
factors,'' including abusing other drugs, heavy drinking, smoking,
malnutrition and little or no prenatal care.

I quoted psychologist Diana Kronstadt: ``In many ways, prenatally
drugexposed children look much like other children who live in similarly
chaotic homes or neighborhoods.''

Sheigla Murphy was on target, asking: ``Are they crack babies or poverty
babies?''

```I'm troubled by the rush to judgment, to say these children are
permanently damaged,'' said Dr. Barry Zuckerman, a Boston pediatrician and
medical school professor. ``The vast majority are normal babies.''

Longterm followups have shown children outgrow the effects of prenatal
drug exposure. But they're vulnerable to the effects of drugs after birth:
inconsistent care by a drugimpaired mother, instability, poverty.

Dr. Ira Chasnoff, president of the National Association for Perinatal
Addiction Research and Education, found no difference in intelligence by
the age of 6. Some crack kids had behavior problems, such as
distractibility, but these were most noticeable for children growing up in
a chaotic drug environment. Sixty percent of mothers continued to use drugs.

Sadly, the stigma has made it harder to place drugexposed babies in
adoptive homes, where they'd be likely to get the kind of consistent care
they need to thrive. It's made it easier to write off poor, innercity
children as hopeless cases, easier to make excuses for their failures in
school, easier to despair.

While most Americans believe the ``crack baby'' myth, few could identify
the substance that can cause lifelong physical and mental handicaps,
including facial and brain abnormalities, slow growth, low intelligence,
hyperactivity, distractibility, poor judgment, poor memory, poor
coordination and seizures.

Alcohol.

Drinking especially binge drinking early in pregnancy may cause Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Effect. The holiday season, with all its
alcoholic jollity, is an especially dangerous time.

In a University of Washington study, 60 percent of people with FAS/FAE over
the age of 12 had been suspended or expelled, or had dropped out of school;
60 percent had been in trouble with the law; half had been confined in a
mental hospital, drug and alcohol facility or jail.

``Booze kids'' aren't hopeless cases either, says Rosemary Tisch of the
Family Education Foundation. They can be helped to cope with their
handicaps, especially if they're diagnosed by the age of 6 and receive
special services. A stable, nurturing home also makes a big difference.
(For information on upcoming training sessions on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome,
call 2441169.)

While 0.9 percent of women use crack cocaine, and 5.5 percent use any
illegal drug, it's estimated that 60 percent of adult women drink, 20
percent drink during pregnancy and 4 percent are alcoholics.

Keeping spirits too bright means a dim future for 1998's ``booze babies.''

Joanne Jacobs is a member of the Mercury News editorial board. Her column
appears on Mondays and Thursdays. You may reach her at 750 Ridder Park Dr.,
San Jose, CA 95190, by fax at 4082713792, or email to
JJacobs@sjmercury.com .